Should the Wake County school system take advantage of new legislation that  would allow it to seek state accreditation of its high schools in lieu of using AdvancED?

As noted in today's article, the bill approved by the state House and Senate would let school districts seek high school accreditation from the state Board of Education. The legislation was introduced because of the accrediting fights that Wake and Burke counties are having with AdvancED.

Wake school board member Chris Malone said staying with AdvancED depends on whether the group conducts an "objective investigation" or a "political investigation."

The UNC system's Board of Governors will get an earful from some student activists during its Friday meeting.

A group from UNC-Chapel Hill and other public universities are gathering Friday to march from the Carolina campus to the system office just off campus on Raleigh Road.

The board is voting Friday on tuition and fee increases, which this student group finds unacceptable.

The student group's demands, according to a news release this week:

1. No tuition hikes!
2. No cuts or layoffs!
3. Full access to education for undocumented students! The UNC Board of Governors must take a stand against HB 11 and use UNC System lobbying power to defeat this bill!
4. Don't balance the budget on our backs! Use UNC System lobbying power to push for closing corporate loopholes in NC and increasing taxes for corporations and the rich!

Tuition hikes are pretty much a done deal this week, and cuts and even layoffs are possible later this year since the UNC system is already planning for five and 10 percent budget cuts. 

And the budget is where the board's attention must remain, chairwoman Hannah Gage said this week.

She doesn't anticipate any discussion of the undocumented student issue. A bill introduced late last month would ban illegal aliens from public colleges and universities.

"That's so far off our agenda right now when we're fighting for our life with budget cuts," Gage said. "We have to protect the quality of our university. That's where we have to put our efforts."

UNC President Erskine Bowles isn't one for a lot of attention.

Still, he couldn't avoid the spotlight entirely this morning when he attended his final meeting of the UNC system's Board of Governors.

After a five-year term highlighted by his leadership through some extraordinarily choppy economic waters, Bowles steps down Dec. 31.

He didn't want a party. He didn't want a luncheon. He didn't want any fanfare.

What he got Friday was some kind words from his co-workers and a medallion bearing the university seal.

"Erskine is a roll-up-your-sleeves kind of leader," said Hannah Gage, who has worked with him closely as chairwoman of the UNC system governing board. "He is without pomp and without pretense. With each challenge, he asks himself one thing - what is the right thing for the university. His moral compass is strong and always clear."

Bowles came to the university from the worlds of politics and business. He had no experience in higher education, but proved a quick learner, his co-workers have said.

And his business acumen and desire for efficient management proved useful in guiding the university through year after year of budget cuts.

"Erskine knew how to lead in a crisis," Gage said. "He steadied us in a period of uncertainty."

Bowles spent a lot of time talking Friday. But not about himself. Instead, he pushed the spotlight towards the staff at the university's general administration office in Chapel Hill, a group he described as over-worked and excessively tolerant of his many demands.

A few he singled out:

The chairwoman of the UNC system's Board of Governors refuted message-board rumors that the board had instructed UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp this week to fire Tar Heels football coach Butch Davis.


"None of that happened. None, none, none," said Hannah Gage, the board's chairwoman. "I can assure that none of that happened. That hasn't been part of any discussion we've had."

The system board rarely, if ever, gets involved athletics oversight, a function delegated to individual campuses, Gage said.

A day after UNC President Erskine Bowles urged the public university system's governing board to focus on deferred maintenance, that board's chairwoman did so as well.

Hannah Gage told her fellow board members Friday morning they should heed Bowles' recommendation that the next UNC system budget be short on expansion and construction requests while focusing on addressing a massive repair and renovation backlog.

It's tough for campus leaders not to leave their mark on their universities, and a repaired roof or steam pipe is decidedly un-glamorous, Gage said.

"Every chancellor wants to be remembered for new buildings and new programs that's the exciting stuff," she said. "But saying no and tapping on the brakes takes tremendous courage."

The UNC system has more than $2 billion in repair and renovation needs that have been deferred over the last decade, according to this recent News & Observer report.

For generations, the notion of an enrollment cap for public universities has long been the third rail of higher education politics - something nobody has wanted to touch.

But a special provision in State House's spending proposal, released last weeks, dares to go there. It suggest a 1 percent cap on enrollment at the state's public universities, an unprecedented notion that has university leaders vexed.

Though plenty of other fiscally-challenged states are turning to enrollment caps or are even lowering student headcount, the idea is a tough one here in North Carolina, which has long held two core education principles dear: access and affordability.

But the House budget writers who broached the cap say it is a necessary step in order to provide some better enrollment planning.

The UNC system will pay a Dallas-based consultant $100,000 to assist in the search for the next university president.

The system has hired R. William Funk & Associates, a firm whose name may ring a bell. Funk ran the search at UNC-Chapel Hill that resulted in the hiring of current Chancellor Holden Thorp, and he was involved in a recent provost search there as well.

Funk has led searches for leaders at dozens of large universities and university systems, including a recent search at Virginia.

Funk's flat fee contract runs from April 23 to Dec. 31 or until the next leader is chosen. The $100,000 fee was the most the UNC system was willing to spend, said Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the UNC system's Board of Governors.

State funds will not be used.

Gage said Funk was a good candidate in part due to his prior work in North Carolina.

"He understands North Carolina and has worked closely on searches for our system," Gage said. "He has a sense of the governance structure and how we work with the legislature."

A UNC system committee interviewed five firms before settling on Funk, who pledged not to work for any other university system while he was under UNC's employ, Gage said.

UNC system officials want the power this year to institute furloughs across the public university system.

UNC system President Erskine Bowles and others say the measure would be preferable to the more than 1,000 layoffs that would be necessary if the spending plan Perdue proposed last week was adopted.

Perdue called for a 4 percent cut to the UNC system's budget, which would be added to a 2 percent cut included in the 2-year budget approved last year.

Taken together, those cuts would force the elimination of about 1,200 jobs across the system, half of which would be faculty, Bowles has said.

Instituting furloughs would spread the pain but might save jobs, officials argue.

"The thought of the damage 1,200 fewer faculty and staff will permanently do to our university and the quality of education we offer our students makes me sick," Bowles wrote in a recent e-mail to Andy Willis, Perdue's senior advisor for governmental affairs. "I know it does our governor too."

University officials have said for weeks already that the loss of the more than 900 jobs eliminated during last year's budget-cut process was nearly crippling, and campuses can't do much more. 

The university system must be formally granted the authority to institute furloughs.

"Furloughing would be the absolute last option and only if we felt the cuts would be so big its the only alternative to laying people off," said Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the UNC system's Board of Governors. 

Last year, North Carolina imposed a 10-hour furlough on all state workers.

Faculty and staff leaders within the university system have already signed off on the furloughs as an acceptable alternative, officials say.

"There's nothing worse than losing a colleague," said McKay Coble, chair of the faculty council at UNC-Chapel Hill. "If furlough is the way to go, I'd much rather do that."

State Sen. Richard Stevens, R-Wake, co-chairman of the appropriations committee on education, said the university should have the authority in case it needs to use it.

"I hope it doesn't come to that," Stevens said. "But I think it's good for the university system to have all the tools it needs. 

The folks looking for a replacement for UNC system President Erskine Bowles need some help.

Got a potential candidate? Like maybe one of these guys?

Thanks to tight budgets, university officials won't travel the state this year soliciting input from the citizenry - as they've done in the past.

But Hannah Gage, in an open letter, asks for your help anyhow. 

She writes:

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CITIZENS OF NORTH CAROLINA:

University of North Carolina system President Erskine Bowles is stepping down at the end of 2010 after five years of dedicated and innovative leadership, and the UNC Board of Governors is deeply grateful for his service to the University and to the citizens of North Carolina.  Our task now is to identify the next leader of our 17-campus system. 

As we go about this critically important work, we need and want your input.  Feedback from citizens across the state will be invaluable as we search for the right leader for our public university system, which today enrolls more than 220,000 students.

In 1795, the University of North Carolina became the first public university in America to open its doors to students.  For more than two centuries, through good times and bad, the people of this state have built and sustained the University and made our system one of the very best in the country.  

More than ever before, North Carolina’s economic future will depend on the teaching, research, and public service our UNC campuses provide, so the importance of this search cannot be overstated.

 All of us involved in the search process share a deep love of the University and a strong commitment to finding a dynamic leader with the proven capacity and vision to further the mission of UNC and its service to the state.  Please let us know what you think.  I encourage you to offer feedback via a simple form found on the search website at www.northcarolina.edu/2010presidentialsearch. You may also respond by email to unc-presidential-search@northcarolina.edu.  We welcome and need your input.

Hannah Gage
Chair, UNC Board of Governors
 

Gov. Beverly Perdue's proposed budget would mandate cuts far larger than what UNC system officials say they can handle.

Perdue calls for a 4 percent budget cut on top of the 2 percent reduction already mandated by the General Assembly in its 2010-11 budget already approved.

That could result in the elimination of 1,200 positions across the UNC system, half of which will be from the faculty ranks, UNC President Erskine Bowles said Tuesday in a written statement.

"The inevitable result would be further increases in class size and fewer course offerings, the elimination and reduction of student support programs, and the elimination of critical administrative positions tied to academic and financial integrity," Bowles said.

Last year, 935 positions were eliminated as the university cut $162.5 million in spending for the current year.

"We were hoping for a smaller cut because we feel we've given more than our share in the previous [year's] budget," said Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the UNC system's Board of Governors. "But this is just the start of the process. We'll be over there working hard to convince the legislature our needs are legitimate and there is no excess."

When eliminating faculty positions, campuses will have to weigh the value of non-tenure track professors and instructors, many of whom teach the introductory courses that serve large numbers of students, said Judith Wegner, chairwoman of the UNC system's faculty assembly.

"If the campuses end up reducing those positions, the students will really be feeling it," said Wegner, a law professor at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Perdue's budget does include funding for enrollment growth and need-based financial aid, two of the UNC system's other top priorities.

And Perdue also wants to scrap a law crafted a year ago directing tuition revenues to the state's general fund.

The UNC system and its campuses protested the move a year ago, saying it crippled campuses to whom the revenue traditionally has gone. The system has lobbied hard for the change, and Perdue apparently has been swayed.

Under Perdue's recommendation, tuition revenues would return to the campuses.

Here's Bowles' entire statement, released today.

As our state struggles to work its way out of this deep economic recession, affordable access to higher education has never been more important to North Carolina’s economic future. We are therefore grateful that Governor Perdue has recommended full funding for our projected University enrollment growth and need-based financial aid for next year. We are also pleased that the Governor has supported the Board of Governors’ alternative to legislatively mandated tuition increases for 2010-11.

The alternative plan places less of a burden on in-state students, and the funds generated by the tuition increases would stay on the campuses to provide more need-based financial aid, help improve retention and graduation rates, and meet other critical campus needs.

On the other hand, we are deeply disappointed in the magnitude of budget cuts that the Governor was forced by economic circumstances to recommend for the University, particularly since we have cut more than our fair share throughout this budget crisis. Over the past four years, we’ve made difficult changes to make sure that we are using every State dollar as efficiently as possible.

In the current fiscal year, the University took permanent budget cuts totaling $162.5 million, including the elimination of 935 positions. In order to protect our Academic Core, nine out of every ten positions we eliminated were administrative jobs. In fact, we permanently reduced our administrative budgets by 18% in a single year. In addition to those cuts made by the General Assembly, the holdbacks imposed on the University by the Governor in the current year have been substantial.

Even though we account for only 13% of the State’s appropriations, the University has absorbed 29% of the budget reversions imposed across all of state government, bringing the total cuts to our budgets this year to almost $300 million.

The General Assembly’s budget for 2010-11 already reduces University budgets by another 2%, and our campuses have been working to identify additional operational efficiencies. But let me be clear: the University cannot continue to bear such a disproportionate share of the budget shortfalls and maintain its academic quality.

The additional budget cuts that the Governor is reluctantly recommending due to economic conditions—new reductions in excess of $100 million—will erode the Academic Core of the University. Seven of every ten dollars appropriated to the University goes straight to the Academic Core, and it is simply impossible to absorb further budget cuts without dramatically affecting the quality of the academic experience for our students. Nearly 1,200 additional positions would have to be eliminated, and nearly half of them would be faculty positions.

The inevitable result would be further increases in class size and fewer course offerings, the elimination and reduction of student support programs, and the elimination of critical administrative positions tied to academic and financial integrity.

While it takes generations to build a great university, it can erode dramatically and quickly if not properly sustained. The budget reductions reluctantly recommended by the Governor will do permanent and substantial damage to the university’s Academic Core and will start us on a path to mediocrity, something North Carolinians have never been willing to settle for in their institutions of higher learning.